Monday, March 10, 2014

Why Businesses Need to Rethink SEO

Though not an exact science, SEO provided internet marketers with a
somewhat reliable method of optimizing traffic, rankings and
conversions. Now, however, in the wake of 2013’s multiple search
algorithm changes, experts are scrambling to rethink their game plan and
focus on results-driven strategies. As retrieving keyword information
becomes more difficult, it has become increasingly obvious that Google’s
intent is to reward content-rich websites, not simply keyword-rich
websites. Let’s take a look at five SEO tips for marketers in 2014.

Semantic SEO

Gone are the days when black hat – or even gray hat – SEO tactics
received a pass from Google. Now, not only are these tactics
discouraged, but they could get your website blacklisted. The focus for
SEO in 2014 is on originality. In fact, the changes to Google’s
penalties have led to a rapid increase in companies turning the focus
back to customers, where it ultimately belongs. Businesses are now
focusing on semantic SEO.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Intro

This post comes at a very interesting time in the search world. There has been much discussion lately of SEO being dead, or at least black and grey hat SEO techniques no longer being effective. There has been arguments of the value and ROI of SEO vs other forms of inbound marketing including pay per click advertising and social media marketing. This all makes the perfect storm for releasing this post which has been in cue since early February. The reason for me waiting to release this post is that while I believe everything I'm about to present was just as true then as it is now, I don't think as many marketers were aware of the changes occurring as they are now. Basically I didn't want to let the cat out of the bag early.

Origins of White Hat vs Black Hat

The terms white hat and black hat don’t originate with search engine optimization. In fact white hat and black hat have been used long before
search optimization was born. The term originally surfaced to distinguish between
computer hackers. Those who were curious and wanted to understand how things
worked and often times were paid to keep out criminals were called white hats.
The black hats then by default became the term for criminal hackers. The whole
thing was really a play on old black and white TV shows where the villain was always wearing dark clothes and hats and the hero always wore
white!

In the computer security context, a
hacker is someone who seeks and exploits weaknesses in a computer system or
computer network. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, such as
profit, protest, or challenge.[1] The subculture that has evolved around
hackers is often referred to as the computer underground and is now a known
community.[2] While other uses of the word hacker exist that are not related to
computer security, such as referring to someone with an advanced understanding
of computers and computer networks, they are rarely used in mainstream
context.[citation needed] They are subject to the long standing hacker
definition controversy about the true meaning of the term hacker. In this
controversy, the term hacker is reclaimed by computer programmers who argue
that someone breaking into computers is better called a cracker,[3] not making
a difference between computer criminals (black hats) and computer security
experts (white hats).[4] Some white hat hackers claim that they also deserve
the title hacker, and that only black hats should be called crackers.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker

SEO’s have borrowed the terms White Hat and Black Hat from
the Network Scrutiny Community (Hackers) as it has now better labeled. The SEO
community has even added it’s own hat to the mix, Grey Hat SEO.I’m now going to introduce yet another hat on
behalf of the SEO World, but first a recap and overview of the various SEO Hats!

White Hat SEO

This should really just be call White Hat. In my opinion,
White Hat SEO is a web site and link building tactics designed and implemented strictly for the USER. User Focused Optimization is key here. I know many people will disagree with me on
this one, but I truly believe all SEO is Grey Hat and I think Google
would agree.So what does this leave us
with. White Hat includes things like great web design, amazing onsite graphics,
proper use of color, size and proportion. Having great onsite copy delivers
your message quickly and effectively.White Hat would also include Conversions Optimization, A- B Testingand the creation of great onsitelinkable assets. White Hat would never Build
Links, White Hat acquires links from real fans, customers, news outlets and
bloggers, just by doing their thing and being a great company with a great
website and web assets. White Hat may optimize Title Tags and onsite text but
only to get better user engagement and increase usability (UX).

Black Hat SEO

Insert the cheats, cons, scammers, spammers and any other
search engine tricksters you can imagine. Black Hat SEO is Optimization focused strictly on “Tricking” Search Engines into ranking their sites better. Black
Hats usually don’t care about good user experience or conversion rates. They generally don’t waste time buildinggood
looking websites or building a fan base. Black hats are playing a numbers game.
They figure if they can trick the search engine into ranking them for even a
few weeks or so for high volume search terms they win. If they get banned a week
later they don’t care because they just start over again from scratch. This is
why black hats don’t spend time building nice websites.Black hats generally make everyone mad , the search
engine who don’t want to be tricked, the user that gets poor UX and often
times scammed, and the Good SEOs who often times get a bad name as being guilty
by association.

Grey Hat SEO

I think this is really where SEO begins to enter the
picture. If you are paying someone or being paid by someone to increase their
search ranking, or even doing it yourself, you are a Grey Hat, at least by my
definitions which is Optimization aimed at BOTH the USER and the SEARCH
ENGINE.While some White Hat Claiming
SEOs may not indulge in any of the darker aspects of Grey Hat (Digital Key Design included)
they still operate with the end goal in mind of Ranking better in the SERPs
and converting clicks to sales. No matter how small the amount of black you
add to white and you get grey, thus the term Grey Hat.Now with that said there certainly is a wide
range and a huge sliding scale of how dark your grey hat is. This is where I feel the
real confusion lays. You have one company charging $49 a month for SEO and another
$5000+. The types of things they’d be doing and the quality of work would
vastly vary yet there is no terms to distinguish between the guy submitting
you to 1000 spam directories a month and the firm doing real internet based
marketing aimed at increased search queries and user engagement. This also
leaves the industry as a whole at the wrong end of the Google firing Lines.

There has recently been a few great posts on the topic of
advancing the real SEO community beyond these tactics thus future proofing the
industry and making it much more legitimate in the eyes of CEOs and other
decision makers. I suggest you check out all of these posts on the topic.

Even if we do manage to rise up above the SEO muck we are
still left under the same Grey Hat umbrella title as the border line Black Hats
and the OK Grey hats that just can’t get with the program. So what are we to
do? Well I’ve come up with a new Title and new Hat that I feel is very fitting
to this new style of SEO marketing both in name and nature. Insert Pimp Hat
SEO!

Pimp Hat SEO

Pimp Hat SEO is my expression of what I have referred to in the
past as SEOM – Search Engine Optimized Marketing. This is marketingfocused strictly on the user and building a
real community of fans that has been optimized for maximum search engine and
social media exposure. While never engaging in Black Hat Techniques aimed at
tricking the search engine there is an accent (the Black Feather) of techniques
used to increase search visibility and convert traffic done in a very moderate
and tactical manner. These techniques are only executed in a fashion and manner
aimed at creating real user interaction and brand awareness. Pimp Hat SEO sets
up web properties and assets that continue to work and bring in traffic long after
creation. The goal here is to create a few targeted and strategic pieces of
content that will do the heavy SEO lifting of bringing traffic and links over a
long period of time. Once you have a few in place you can continue to build on
this web equity and spend more quality time creating ever better Web Assets for
the future. Using this approach your site will soon be Big Pimp’n and you’ll be
drawing in traffic from your various assets with little to no effort. Pimp Hat
SEO is planning and building for the futurelong term success rather than focusing on
small short term wins that need to be done constantly often leading to poor
quality content and low success rates. Pimp Hat SEO has also been referred to in the past as community building but I think Pimp Hat SEO is even larger than that. More recently there was this great White Board Friday Video by Rand Fishkin explaining what he calls a "Marketing Flywheel" which I think hits the nail on the head with what I'm getting at here.

Pimp Hat SEO is the Future of SEO and Inbound Marketing!

Disclaimer:This post references the term
“pimp” out of jest from the point of view of an American where it is common place
to see “pimp” costumes in the Halloween section every year and songs
like Jay Z ‘s Big Pimpin'.We mean no
disrespect to woman and do not condone the the abuse or mistreatment of any
human being anywhere any time! Find out
more information on how you can help prevent the mistreatment of women.